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Frank Ball
Langley Park/Atlanta/NY

Frank Ball, a cousin of the great amateur player, Tom Ball, was, with Tom, Harry and Sidney, one of four Hoylake brothers who had careers in professional golf. They, with four sisters, were sons of William Ball, a Hoylake greenkeeper, and his wife, Hannah Silcock Roscoe.

Born in Hoylake in 1892, Frank began his career at Wimbledon Town GC, a forerunner of Wimbledon Common GC, for the season 1911-12. Following a couple of seasons as assistant to his brother, Tom, at Raynes Park from where he qualified in 1913 from 80 Southern entrants for the Perrier Assistants’ Tournament final, he became professional to the Chipstead club in the Surrey hills when Philip Wynne left. In 1915 he set a new record of 65 for the course where the bogey was 76.

After the war he took up the post of professional at Langley Park. He made a good showing in the Roehampton tournament in 1921, qualifying second ahead of J H Taylor and Fred Leach to reach the semi-final where he was beaten by James Ockenden. 1923 was a particularly good year. He reached the final of the 1000 guineas tournament at Gleneagles but lost to Arthur Havers. However, the following month he triumphed at the Broxbourne tournament with a field featuring Alliss, Herd, Havers, Gadd and Abe Mitchell, defeating James Sherlock in the final. He won the Kent Professional Championship and retained it the following year. He led the qualifiers for the Ł750 News of the World (PGA Championship) in September 1923 with a record-equalling 70 in the second round leaving Vardon, Braid, Duncan, Mitchell and Ockenden in his wake. In 1924 he finished third in the Open Championship behind Walter Hagen.

Golf took a break in 1925 when a serious motorcycle accident kept him out of action with damage to his eyes but he made a full recovery albeit having to wear glasses for some time.

In 1926 he sailed for New York on the Andania from Southampton on 29 October. The entire stock of golf clubs he had made was sold to Hamleys who sold them at knockown prices through their various London stores (Drivers at 11s 6d instead of 17s 6d or 21/-; irons at 10s 6d instead of 16s 6d). Frank was soon playing tournament golf finishing tied for 6th in the Miami Open in January 1927 behind Gene Sarazen.

He was appointed professional at the East Lake club in Atlanta when Stuart Maiden left. He qualified over the East Lake course for the 1928 US Open in Chicago and led after the first round. At the end of the competition, though, he was tied for 22nd.

Ball was still at East Lake in 1930 at the time of the US census, single and boarding along with a young English golf instructor, Leslie Kellett, with the Carpenter family in Atlanta. Ball resigned from the club on 1 March 1932 and headed for Miami with the intention of playing some Florida tournaments over the coming months. He found himself a professional’s position with the hilltop course of Haines Falls in the Catskills which allowed him to play in the South over the winter and February 1933 saw him play the St Petersburg Open, the Gasparilla Open and the Orange Blossom Open in rapid succession but without appreciable success.

In 1934 from Haines Valley he qualified for the matchplay stages of the USPGA but lost disastrously in the first round, 8&7, to Al Watrous. At the end of that season he went back to Britain presumably to introduce his new wife Lucille to it. He entered the Open at Muirfield that June and qualifying comfortably at Gullane finished tied 27th in the championship. The couple had returned to the US via Southampton in August 1935 but he was back on his own to play in the 1936 Open at his old home course of Hoylake. His qualifying was at Hoylake itself but, to quote a press report, ‘he was all over the course’ and an 87 in his first qualifying round gave him no chance of playing in the event proper.

Returning to America on the Ascania from Southampton at the end of February 1937 his next professional position was at Tannersville, NY, and he played from there in the $4000 Glen Falls Open tournament that year.

The 1940 census shows Frank and Lucille living in Tannersville, she a public school teacher, he with occupation left blank so he may have left the Tannersville club at this point. He was soon called back into action though. Walt Tiehl, the pro at the Twaalfskill club, went to serve in the military in WWII and Ball was asked to serve as professional during the war. He proved very popular, winning a pro-am in October 1945, and leading Twaalfskill to their first ever win against local rivals the Wiltwyck club. As a result he was asked to remain on the staff when Tiehl returned and had the title assistant professional. One strange thing about the local reporting on Ball was the papers repeatedly said he had come to the United States a few years previously with a British Walker Cup team and never returned. For some reason the story must have suited him as I have not seen it corrected. Perhaps he was the source of it.

In 1947 he announced he was opening a driving range open from 10am to 10pm where he would be available to give instruction. It certainly was open in 1948, the year of the advertisement, and is the last record I have of Frank Ball.

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